Featured Speakers

Jamie Torres Carmona, AIA, LEED® BD + C

Jaime Torres Carmona founded Canopy to explore his belief in design as a vehicle for positive change, through projects ranging in scale from community and health centers to housing, schools, mixed-use buildings and urban design. Jaime is drawn towards the urban and civic realm and its impact on the human experience, and is recognized for his sensitivity toward the end user, the community impact and the environment. Jaime is currently engaged in projects throughout Chicago and the Midwest, focusing on opportunities that allow him to combine research with a participative process to create meaningful spaces.

Jaime’s work has been presented in a number of venues including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, the Energy Center of Wisconsin, the Chicago Cultural Center, as well as the National AIA Conference in New York City. As both a Baker Fellow and a Ryerson Fellow, as well as a distinguished graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he has taught at UIUC, Judson University and other local universities where his studies have focused on cities, urbanism, people and culture. Jaime is a member of Chicago DPD’s Design Excellence Committee, and was appointed as a member of Mayor Lightfoot’s Housing Transition committee. He was also an appointed Jury member for the 2023 National AIA Firm of the Year and AIA Gold Medal selection committees.

Jennifer Wilson, PhD, MSW

Jennifer leads a multidisciplinary research team at Shopworks Architecture, a Denver-based firm that specializes in supportive and affordable housing as well as shelter and service settings.

As a social worker and social scientist, Jennifer has direct practice and program management experience in shelter and service delivery, which deeply inform a community- and human-centered approach to research, program evaluation, training, and teaching. Her research agenda focuses on social innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration in housing and homeless service systems. Currently, her research at Shopworks is dedicated to examining trauma-informed design to promote dignity, equity, and healing in housing as a key social determinant of health.

Her previous research has explored tiny home villages addressing homelessness, unconditional cash for unhoused individuals, safe parking for vehicular sheltering, artificial intelligence in housing allocation, and hackathons for generating novel responses to wicked social issues – all of which inform the broader continuum addressing housing insecurity. She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as an MBA and PhD in Social Work from the University of Denver.

Brett Randall Jones, AIA, LEED® AP

Brett Randall Jones moved from Hale County, Alabama, to join DBA in early 2011. He is now a Principal at the firm after being with the firm for more than ten years.

After graduating from Auburn University with Bachelors degrees in Architecture and Interior Architecture, Brett joined the Rural Studio, where he designed large-scale community projects and low-income housing and developed an extensive knowledge of construction through several self-built projects—most notably, a 40-acre public park for the community of Greensboro, Alabama.

Brett grew up in the rural South and spent most of his childhood in the woods, exploring and collecting. Since moving to California, he’s dedicated his free time to bicycle camping in the area’s incredible landscapes.

Brett has been published in many major architecture and design magazines including Architectural Record, Metropolis, Domus, and Architect. His work has been exhibited at the V&A Museum in London, Rouse Gallery at Penn State, and the Jules Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.

Brett believes that, more than anything, being a part of the community for which we are designing is essential to the creation of meaningful buildings, and that to truly know the people and the place enables us to produce sincere architecture and, more importantly, encourages us to love and serve others.

Anne Torney, AIA, LEED® AP BD+C

Anne is an architect who has made affordable multi-family housing and transit-oriented urban infill the focus of her work for more than 30 years. She brings a deep commitment to community outreach and sustainable design to all her projects, which range in scale and program from supportive studios for formerly homeless seniors, to the revitalization of isolated public housing sites into walkable, resilient, mixed-use and mixed-income communities. Her affordable housing experience includes award-winning projects in San Francisco as well as San Jose, Los Angeles and Seattle. A notable example is Casa Adelante at 2060 Folsom, recognized with a national 2023 AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Award for exemplary social, ecological and economic performance.

Anne serves on Mithun’s board of directors and leads the firm’s San Francisco office. She is a longtime board member of the Bay Area Housing Action Coalition. Through her work with organizations including AIA and SPUR, Anne advocates for diversity in the profession and expanded access to affordable housing.

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